THIS JUST IN
( Top )(1) TRYING TO BREAK CYCLE OF PRISON AT STREET LEVEL

Pubdate: Fri, 23 Nov 2007Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2007 The New York Times Company
Author: Solomon Moore

HOUSTON -- Corey Taylor, a convicted drug dealer, recently got out
of prison and moved into his grandmother's house in Sunnyside, a
south central Houston neighborhood of small, tidy yards.

During his first days home, Mr. Taylor, 26, got a sharp reminder of
the neighborhood's chronic problems.

"Out of 10 of my partners, only one is doing anything different," he
said, referring to his former drug-dealing companions. "I have some
friends I haven't seen for 10 years because either I was locked up
or they were locked up."

Last year, 32,585 prisoners were released on state parole in Texas,
and many of them returned to neighborhoods where they live among
thousands of other parolees and probationers.

Sunnyside is one of 10 neighborhoods in Houston that together
accounted for 15 percent of the city's population, yet received half
of the 6,283 prisoners released in Houston in 2005, according to the
Justice Mapping Center, a criminal justice research group.

The group, which is based in Brooklyn, has done work for the Texas
Legislature that helped lead to a $217 million expansion of
rehabilitation services.

Neighborhoods like Sunnyside can be found in virtually every big
city in the nation. Even as violent crime statistics trend downward,
incarceration rates throughout the country remain at a historic high
of 750 per 100,000 residents. Each year about 650,000 prisoners are
released on parole, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Mapping studies in neighborhoods as distant as the Phoenix suburb of
South Mountain and the Newhallville area of New Haven show
incarceration rates far higher than the national rate.

The parolees are almost always coming back to areas where support
systems, like schools and public assistance programs, receive less
money and attention than incarceration does, the studies show. In an
effort to break the cycle, Texas this fall began its expansion of
services for former inmates, including job training classes, drug
treatment programs and psychological counseling.

The approach, based in part on legislative presentations by the
Justice Mapping Center, is a sharp departure from the state's
longtime criminal justice focus on retribution.

The shift is intended to save the state money by slowing the
revolving door between state prisons and neighborhoods like
Sunnyside. The parolees released last year cost the state $100
million over the course of their prison terms; the 85 who returned
to Sunnyside, population 21,000, accounted for almost $8 million of
that, according to data by the mapping group.

Evidence of a growing pre-teen drug problem in Britain emerged
yesterday with research showing that one in seven children have
tried cannabis before the age of 13.

The study, reported by the EU's drug agency, says there has been an
explosion in the number of children under 15 going into drug
treatment across Europe.

The annual report from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and
Drug Addiction shows that the UK's drug problem among young
teenagers is far worse than in any other EU country. The research
shows that 13% of British schoolchildren say they first tried
cannabis before they were 13. This is much higher than any other
European country - it compares with 8% in the Netherlands and
Ireland - and is more than three times the EU average.

[snip]

The EU drugs agency also said that the growth of cocaine use in
Britain and Spain had proved to be a precursor of a new boom in
cocaine use across Europe. The market has grown by a million new
users in the past year alone, making it the second most popular
illegal drug after cannabis.

[snip]

Britain is no longer at the top of the European cannabis league
among people aged 15-34, with 16.3% using it in the last year
compared with 20% for Spain, 19% for the Czech Republic and 16.5%
for Italy.

We are glad to see the Conservative government using the excess
lifespan donated by Her Majesty's Opposition to get tough on crime.
But was it really necessary to include victimless acts among the
list of crimes being targeted?

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson's new package of mandatory sentences
for marijuana dealers, announced on Tuesday, seems to involve some
perverse incentives. Under the bill, a grower who is caught with
between one and 200 plants and is found to have the intention of
trafficking will receive a non-negotiable minimum of six months in
prison, unless he can show that he is eligible for judicially
ordered treatment under the auspices of a drug court. The maximum
penalty for having a few pot plants on the premises will be
increased to 14 years.

Certainly, this will discourage some small-time growers from dealing
marijuana, since only a fraction of them now receive jail terms for
a first offence. But it's equally certain that it will encourage
others to reason that they might as well go to prison for 199 plants
as for five.

The government of British Columbia, which is where the effect of the
new sentencing guidelines is likely to hit hardest, doesn't think
the province is going to transform overnight into a utopia of
temperance. The provincial corrections department said on Wednesday
that if Mr. Nicholson's guidelines are enacted, it will probably
have to find room in its jails for about 700 more marijuana growers
per year -- people who are currently punished with house arrest or a
fine. And nobody is sure where these additional prisoners are going
to be put, since 80% of provincial prisoners in B.C. are already
double-bunked and the rest are either in protective custody or are
too violent for a cellmate.

[snip]

There are serious criminal problems to be tackled in this country --
such as those involving gangs and guns. Compared to these, marijuana
is simply not on the risk radar screen. It is baffling that, at this
point in history, any government in Ottawa would bring an
American-style War on Drugs approach to Canada's small-scale
marijuana growers.

After spending yesterday recognizing all the things I am thankful
for in my personal life, I was pleased to find several positive
pieces in our archives to highlight.

A nod to presidential candidate John Edwards who discussed drug
policy reform at a campus rally. Thousands of recovering addicts
appreciate the safe haven being provided by the community of Delray
Beach, Florida. Many thanks to the ACLU for their preparation of a
law suit against drug testing of Hawaiian public school teachers.
Closing this section with immense gratitude to Julie Stewart for all
the work she has done towards reforming our incredibly unjust
mandatory minimum laws.

Grinnell, Ia. - America needs to reconsider its punitive approach to
"the so-called war on drugs," presidential candidate John Edwards
said here today.

"We're not going to build enough prisons to solve this problem," he
told a crowd of about 800 at Grinnell College.

The former North Carolina senator grinned when a young man sitting
behind him on stage asked about drug policy. "Only on college
campuses," Edwards joked before answering.

He said he's especially concerned about mandatory minimum sentences
for first-time drug offenders, which he said should be reconsidered.
He added that too few drug offenders get treatment.

"You go to jail, you come out of jail, and a lot of people go right
back to the environment that got them in trouble to begin with," he
said. "...We need to get them the help that they need; if they need
education, if they need job training, if they need drug
rehabilitation."

He also said he favored drug courts, in which non-violent offenders
often are given alternatives to prison. And he said he would beef up
the probation system, so probation officers aren't each expected to
oversee hundreds of cases.

Pubdate: Fri, 16 Nov 2007Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2007 The New York Times Company
Author: Jane Gross
Note: Terry Aguayo contributed reporting from Miami.

[snip]

Delray Beach, a funky outpost of sobriety between Fort Lauderdale
and West Palm Beach, is the epicenter of the country's largest and
most vibrant recovery community, with scores of halfway houses, more
than 5,000 people at 12-step meetings each week, recovery radio
shows, a recovery motorcycle club and a coffeehouse that boasts its
own therapy group.

Recovery communities are springing up outside the walls of rehab
centers for alumni seeking the safety in numbers.

The prototype community is in Minnesota, near the Hazelden clinic.
But recovering substance abusers are also sinking roots in Arizona,
Southern California and the Gold Coast of Florida -- places with
more sizzle and better weather. Lindsay Lohan spoke hopefully of
finding eternal rehab in the Wasatch mountains of Utah, near Provo,
where some graduates of her latest drug treatment center have moved.

Delray Beach is in a class by itself, experts say, because of its
compact geography and critical mass of recovering addicts who cross
paths daily in the shops and bistros along Atlantic Avenue. They fly
beneath the radar of tourists oblivious to telltale signs of
addiction, like unapologetic chain smoking. But they see one another
everywhere:

[snip]

It is difficult to count the recovery population here because only
residential treatment beds are licensed by the state. As of Nov. 1,
almost 3,500 people were being treated as in-patients in Palm Beach,
Broward and Miami-Dade Counties in southeastern Florida, by far the
largest concentration in the state.

Halfway houses, by contrast, are unregulated. But Dr. Jonas said
there were about 1,200 halfway house beds in this city alone. With
rent averaging $175 a week, these businesses generate almost $11
million a year.

Low-wage jobs for people in recovery are plentiful in a tourist
economy. Recovering addicts make smoothies at Ben and Jerry's, and
sell housewares at Crate and Barrel. Among the current worker bees
are an executive chef and a professional baseball player, both
busing tables.

[snip]

Typically modest bungalows, halfway houses provide structure and
supervision -- curfews, random urine tests, the requirement that
tenants have jobs and attend meetings. Still, unscrupulous owners
prey on tenants by "flipping" the same bed, insisting on several
months' rent up front, then evicting someone for rules violations
and re-renting the room. Some owners also put rule-breakers out on
the curb, with no alternative housing, which can lead to crime and
an outcry from neighborhood homeowners.

A movement to ban halfway houses in residential neighborhoods has so
far been unsuccessful, with courts ruling that such restrictions
violate the Americans with Disability Act. The association of
halfway-house owners is trying self-regulation, and its members are
required to find a placement for an evicted tenant, often at a
discounted rate in a motel Dr. Jonas owns.

A civil rights group says it has been contacted by more than 200
teachers who are interested in being part of a federal lawsuit
challenging a new policy that calls for random drug tests for public
school teachers.

Carlie Ware, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union's
Drug Law Reform Project, said the organization is interviewing
potential plaintiffs and aims to file the lawsuit by January.

[snip]

The ACLU of Hawaii says the policy is unconstitutional, and had
threatened legal action in a letter to Gov. Linda Lingle last month,
asking her to scrap the policy by yesterday or face a lawsuit.

[snip]

The policy was added as a non-negotiable item in a contract ratified
last spring by the 13,000-member Hawaii State Teachers Association.
In May, 61.3 percent of more than 8,000 union members approved the
contract, which also provided 4 percent raises in the current and
next school years.

Attorney General Mark Bennett has said the ratification makes any
legal challenge moot. The ACLU argues that teachers' constitutional
right to privacy cannot be negotiated into a contract.

Julie Stewart was sitting at her desk at a think tank in the
District 17 years ago when her telephone rang. It was her brother
calling to say he had been busted for growing marijuana.

"How stupid," she recalled thinking. She figured he would get off
with a relatively light punishment -- perhaps a little jail time,
maybe probation. After all, she reasoned, he had no record. And it
was "only" marijuana.

Instead, for cultivating 365 six-inch marijuana plants, Stewart's
brother received five years in federal prison, a sentence Stewart
considered harsh.

"I was astounded," said Stewart, 51, of Chevy Chase. "We are putting
people in prison with sentence lengths that used to be reserved for
the most violent offenders."

That was Stewart's introduction to the nation's mandatory minimum
sentencing laws, which dictated how much time her brother would
spend behind bars. Anguish over that sentence led her to establish
Families Against Mandatory Minimums ( FAMM ), one of several
advocacy groups credited with persuading the U.S. Sentencing
Commission recently to relax the penalties prescribed for some crack
cocaine offenses.

[snip]

A self-described libertarian, Stewart said she believes lawbreakers
should face penalties. But the time, she said, should fit the crime.

"I think it's easy for members of Congress to forget how long 10
years is," Stewart said. "Sentences have gotten so inflated in the
last 20 years that we no longer think about what that means to the
person serving the sentence or their family."

Besides fighting to get mandatory minimums repealed, FAMM also works
to change some states' sentencing laws and serves as a resource for
organizations across the country.

The one year anniversary of a botched drug raid, which ended in the
death of a 92-year-old woman, gave the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
an opportunity to provide updates in several articles. I have
selected one covering the newly-formed narcotics squad and another
addressing the family's civil suit.

While not quite singing LEAP phrases, it appears that Baltimore's
newest police commissioner will be concentrating his resources on
violent crime. In a recent Baltimore Sun interview he called for
increased funding for quality drug treatment and outlined some
refreshing policy ideas.

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke Jr. gets the Law Enforcement
Blunder of the Year Award with this quote: "If you're going to fire
every cop who violates the Constitution," Clarke explained, "we're
not going to have many left."

On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the worst scandal to hit
the Atlanta Police Department in his four years as leader, Chief
Richard Pennington announced that the department's newly revamped
anti-drug section is "the best-trained narcotics unit in the
Southeast."

With Mayor Shirley Franklin by his side, Pennington said the Nov.
21, 2006, police killing of Kathryn Johnston, 92, in her home on the
city's northwest side was a tragedy that "tore at the heart of the
community" and caused an overhaul of police training and procedures
to ensure such a thing doesn't happen again.

[snip]

The reborn unit -- doubled from 15 officers to 30 -- has been up and
running since the first week of October, Pennington said.

[snip]

At his news conference at police headquarters, Pennington detailed
his overhaul of the narcotics unit, including replacing everyone in
the entire unit and putting the new officers through extensive
training from outside police agencies.

The family of the 92-year-old woman fatally shot in a botched police
raid filed a civil suit against the city and the Police Department
on Wednesday, the one-year anniversary of a police killing that
shocked the nation.

[snip]

The suit, filed in Fulton County Court by Johnston's family, does
not specify a dollar amount, but Markel Hutchins, an Atlanta
minister who is serving as a spokesman for the estate, said the
family would consider anything less than a multimillion-dollar
settlement an insult.

As a comparison, Hutchins cited a reverse-discrimination lawsuit
that awarded $17 million to seven white Fulton County librarians who
were ousted from their jobs and said the circumstances in that case
were "far less egregious."

[snip]

The suit charges the corrupt practices of the Police Department led
to violations of the U.S. Constitution and state law.

It names the city of Atlanta, Pennington and individual officers
involved in the fateful raid on Johnston's home.

The officers named include Gregg Junnier and Jason Smith, who have
both pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and other state
charges in the incident.

They face sentencing soon.

It also names Arthur Tesler, who has been indicted on federal
charges in the case, and two supervisors involved in the raid, Sgt.
W.T. Stallings and Lt. Stacie Gibbs.

[snip]

Police had raided Johnston's northwest Atlanta house using a warrant
obtained with false testimony from an informant. They obtained a
"no-knock" search warrant, meaning they could enter the house
without warning.

A fearful Johnston apparently thought the police were criminals and
brought out an old gun to stop the intruders. She fired one shot and
missed. Police fired 39 times, fatally injuring her and wounding
other officers.

They handcuffed Johnston as she lay dying, and then several officers
attempted to plant marijuana in the house to cover up the mistake.
They falsified reports to make it look as though drug dealing had
occurred in the house.

The fiasco caused national headlines and led to a hiatus of almost a
year on police efforts to shut down drug houses. The city's reborn
narcotics unit, made up of entirely new officers, began
investigating drug houses in October.

Here are excerpts from a 45-minute interview with Bealefeld, during
which he questioned how the drug war is being fought and policies of
predecessors that led to thousands of questionable arrests:

Fighting drugs: Can anyone in this country say the war on drugs has
been a success? If they can, I really don't know who they are. ...
We've had victories here and there. But have we solved the drug
problem in America?

We can't be overwhelmed by the notion of drug enforcement. The fact
of the matter is old strategies, a drug arrest, in the scheme of
things, was ranked as high as some other arrests, because the
problem was mounted so high on our radar screen. Drugs, drugs,
drugs, drugs. So cops, a lot of these guys came through their
careers thinking, "Man, I got to attack this drug problem ... " We
can't do that and give burglars and car thieves and robbers a pass.

[snip]

Drug treatment: I can tell you this ... without trepidation: We need
real investments - and there have been incremental investments -
there needs to be real, real work on drug treatment in this city.
That has to be done. And we need to come to grips with that. We need
real treatment programs, and they have to be effective. That is as
important as holding me accountable for arresting more drug
offenders. It can't be one or the other

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke Jr. was rightfully angry the
other day at officials who shrugged their shoulders after a felon on
probation recently failed two drug tests. Clarke went so far as to
call Judge Joe Donald "soft."

It was easy to identify with the tough-talking sheriff's
frustration.

But now the question must be asked of Clarke: Why did he use such a
light touch himself with a half-dozen deputies who violated
department policy - and the U.S. Constitution - by entering an empty
house without a warrant?

Recall that two of the deputies were less than honest about the
improper search in their reports, and county prosecutors have said
they won't use the pair on the stand again.

All six walked with nothing more than a written reprimand and some
training on the Fourth Amendment.

"If you're going to fire every cop who violates the Constitution,"
Clarke explained, "we're not going to have many left."

Read that again. It's just a stunning admission for a guy who likes
to talk about his high standards.

As in the U.S., British youngsters are being referred to treatment
in greater numbers for cannabis dependence. It seems many depend on
cannabis to ameliorate anxiety and psychological disorders stemming
from dysfunctional upbringings.

Seemingly oblivious to the U.S. experience, Canada's conservative
government tabled legislation last week that would impose mandatory
minimum prison sentences for various drug crimes, including cannabis
cultivation.

It appears the Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care has gathered
more than enough signatures to put a medicinal cannabis initiative on
the 2008 ballot. If the measure is certified and passed by a majority
of voters, it will allow patients to use, possess, and grow their own
with a doctors' approval.

A Denver judge may have cleared the way for compassion clubs in
Colorado by striking down a health department policy which limited
caregivers to five patients or less.

(13) NINE-YEAR-OLDS AMONG THOUSANDS SEEKING HELP WITH THEIR ADDICTION
( Top )

Family breakdown and school exclusion are just two factors that are
turning Britain's youngsters into drug abusers, especially of
cannabis. Last year, more than 9,000 went into treatment - an
increase of 20 per cent.

Thousands of British children are receiving treatment for drug abuse
as stresses including family breakdown and expulsion from school
fuel a rise in young people appealing for help with their
addictions.

Official figures obtained by The Independent on Sunday have revealed
that more than 9,000 children aged as young as nine entered
treatment for drug problems in England last year. The total,
revealed by health ministers, was up a fifth on the figure for
2005-06.

More than half the young people in residential treatment units or
reporting to GPs and community action teams list cannabis as the
main drug they are abusing. But, in a disturbing signal that abuse
of class A drugs is creeping into Britain's playgrounds, the
proportion of young people in treatment listing cannabis as their
principal drug is falling.

The latest Department of Health figures come only days after the
school inspection organisation, Ofsted, warned that one in seven 12-
to 15-year-olds had tried illegal drugs.

Experts warned that the rising toll of disclosed drug problems did
not tell the full story, as many youngsters were suffering in
silence - - or refusing to accept that their drug use had become a
problem. But they insisted that the most of the youngsters involved
were turning to drugs in a desperate attempt to deal with a mountain
of problems.

[snip]

Drugscope spokesman Harry Shapiro said the rise was closely linked
to an increase in the stresses facing Britain's youth, documented in
a shocking United Nations survey that put the UK bottom of an
international table of child well-being.

OTTAWA -- The Conservative government unveiled legislation Tuesday
to create the first mandatory prison terms in Canada for people
convicted of trafficking illicit drugs, including those who grow
marijuana for profit.

The proposed changes are the newest chapter in the Harper
government's sweeping crackdown on crime, which includes bills
before Parliament to toughen rules for repeat violent offenders, to
keep accused young offenders in jail before their trials, and now,
to impose automatic prison penalties on serious drug offenders.

Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act has no mandatory prison
sentences. Judges use their own discretion about whether to send
drug pushers and growers to jail.

The new bill proposes:

- A mandatory six-month sentence for growing as little as one
marijuana plant for the purposes of trafficking, sure to be felt in
B.C., where marijuana-growing operations are common and fines are
the usual penalty.

- A two-year mandatory term for running a marijuana-growing
operation of 500 plants or more.

- A doubling of the maximum prison term for cannabis production from
seven to 14 years.

[snip]

Vancouver's "Prince of Pot," Marc Emery, said he was alarmed by the
news, and it will clog the courts and jails.

"You can never beat organized crime as long as you have
prohibition," Emery said. "If we just legalized these drugs and
distributed them to addicts, we'd see an evaporation of organized
crime."

Eugene Oscapella, a criminal lawyer who teaches drug policy at the
University of Ottawa, said decades of experience with tough,
mandatory penalties in the United States have proven that the threat
of prison terms doesn't deter drug traffickers or growers.

LANSING -- Michigan residents may get a chance to vote next fall on
whether to decriminalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes,
after supporters of the idea submitted nearly a half-million
petition signatures to state elections officials Tuesday.

The Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care claimed to have
gathered the signatures of 496,000 registered voters, far in excess
of the 304,000 required to put the issue before the Legislature and,
if no action is taken, to state voters.

Dianne Byrum, a former state legislator from Ingham County now
working with the coalition, said the use of medical marijuana enjoys
broad support around the country and in Michigan.

Twelve states allow citizens some access to medical marijuana,
giving seriously ill patients the right to use the drug, mainly for
pain relief. They also may be able to grow it. Voters in five cities
in Michigan -- Detroit, Flint, Ann Arbor, Ferndale and Traverse City
-- have approved similar ordinances in recent years.

But use and possession of marijuana for any purpose remains illegal
under state and federal laws.

Byrum said the Michigan initiative has been narrowly crafted to
restrict marijuana use to people who have specific, serious
illnesses certified by physicians. It has been endorsed in concept
by resolution of the state Democratic Party, said Byrum, a former
Democratic state senator and representative who runs a political
consulting firm.

Access to medical marijuana will be easier as a result of a ruling
by a Denver judge.

District Judge Larry Naves last week overturned a state health
department policy that restricted providers of medical marijuana to
five patients.

The ruling endorses a settlement reached between the health
department and attorneys for AIDS patient Damien LaGoy, who sued
after his caregiver request was denied in May based on the
five-patient rule.

The denial forced him to buy marijuana on the street, LaGoy said.

"I was in a very dangerous situation," LaGoy said at a news
conference Monday. "I was trying to get medical marijuana from some
of the darkest spots in town, risking my life at times. I actually
have been robbed once trying to find medical marijuana. Also, you
never know what you're getting."

[snip]

Naves granted an injunction this summer preventing the health
department from enforcing the policy, which he said was adopted by
the department in a closed meeting in 2004.

That ruling led to negotiations in which the state agreed not to
enforce the five-patient rule and to notify patients, caregivers and
others when considering policies affecting medical marijuana users.

"The health department just randomly selected five as the limit in a
secret, clandestine meeting that was not open to patients or
caregivers or doctors or the scientific community," said attorney
Brian Vicente.

While political parties should be able to debate certain issues,
debating the legalization of cannabis is off-limits, according to
the European prohibitionist organization EURAD. Only "those who have
a vested interest or are merely armchair generals" could debate the
legalization of cannabis, said Grainne Kenny, EURAD spokesperson.
Kenny made the remarks in a letter to Irish Labour Party leaders
last week after the party attempted to simply debate the issue.
"While cannabis is banned and criminalised, criminals will continue
to supply it and young people and others will continue to use it and
will be placed in the hands and control of criminals," noted Labour
party official Emmett Stagg.

Usually, one country must conquer another before the victor may
re-write the laws of the vanquished. But Prohibitionists from
Washington D.C. have descended upon Mexico and are determined to
re-write the Mexicans' drug laws for them. "The Bush
administration's proposed counternarcotics aid package for Mexico
would set in motion a vast reengineering of the country's justice
system, revamping the legal education process." The $500 million
carrot contains money for Mexican military and Mexican police, and
anti-drug propaganda.

East of Mexico, in the West Indies, the nation of Trinidad and
Tobago was rocked with allegations that "police officers are
involved in the drug and guns trade in the Southern Division."
Police Superintendent Chandrabhan Maharaj made the allegations last
week. The accusations came to light after Maharaj refused a
promotion, citing the entrenched corruption as a reason.

Another year of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's occupation
of the central Asian nation of Afghanistan, and another record
bumper harvest of opium, especially troubling to the western
occupying forces when it is grown in hostile Helmand province in the
south. While some have proposed simply buying the opium from Afghan
farmers, UK PM Gordon Brown has another idea. Why not pay farmers
for not growing opium? Reports did not say how it will be determined
how much opium each farmer has not been growing.

"I am indeed surprised that the 'new' Labour Party is wasting
precious time at your very important conference debating an issue
that is wearing thin, except of course to those who have a vested
interest or are merely armchair generals," she said.

MEXICO CITY -- The Bush administration's proposed counternarcotics
aid package for Mexico would set in motion a vast reengineering of
the country's justice system, revamping the legal education process,
creating a network of court clerks and helping to write new laws,
according to two summaries obtained by The Washington Post.

The $500 million plan would also fund anti-drug and human rights
campaigns and new citizen complaint centers. It would provide money
for efforts to develop "centers of moral authority" and for media
campaigns to create "a culture of lawfulness."

Under the plan, which has drawn criticism from some on Capitol Hill,
officials from the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Marshals
Service and the Federal Bureau of Prisons would conduct training
sessions and military officers would provide instruction related to
aircraft.

Nearly every sector of Mexico's federal justice system would receive
a slice of the proposed aid, with millions being doled out for
equipment and training for prosecutors, federal police, prison
managers and customs inspectors. It would also give birth to new
institutions: Money has been set aside, for instance, to help
establish a training academy for drug-sniffing dogs and their
handlers.

[snip]

The documents include unusually blunt criticisms of Mexico, with one
declaring that "there is widespread popular distrust within Mexico
for its law enforcement institutions."

[snip]

While the documents provide a trove of details about the drug plan,
some areas are not fully fleshed out. Half a million dollars would
be set aside for media campaigns designed to create a "culture of
lawfulness" and for helping nongovernmental organizations develop
"centers of moral authority." But the document does not define a
center of moral authority.

An investigation has been launched into claims made by a Police
Superintendent that police officers are involved in the drug and
guns trade in the Southern Division.

The allegation that rampant corruption exists in the division was
made by Supt Chandrabhan Maharaj, in a letter written to Police
Commissioner Trevor Paul.

In the letter, Maharaj, who is in charge of the Princes Town Police
Station, refused to accept a promotion to the position of Acting
Senior Superintendent in charge of the entire Southern Division
because of the alleged crooked activities of police officers.

The head of the UN's anti-narcotics unit has called on Nato forces
to crack down on heroin production in Afghanistan -- a policy which
contradicts proposals by the Brown government.

Gordon Brown will propose paying farmers more than they earn from
their poppy harvests in return for ceasing to grow the crop when he
makes a statement to the Commons in the next few weeks on his
strategy for winning over Afghans and curbing the influence of the
Taliban.

Thus far the British campaign to destroy poppy production has been
an abject failure, according to the annual report of the UN Office
on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The biggest growth area is in Helmand
province, a Taliban stronghold, where British forces are fighting
daily battles.

British and allied forces are looking at ways of targeting the
heroin dealers by destroying drug factories inside Afghanistan.
However, British ministers are keen to avoid alienating the farmers
who are making a living out of the poppy crop.

That has caused tensions with the U.S. administration, which has
been pressing Britain to support aerial spraying to destroy the
crop. But aerial spraying is opposed by Afghanistan's President
Hamid Karzai and a senior Downing Street official made it clear
yesterday that Mr Brown will call for a more sympathetic approach to
the farmers. "We have to work closely with the communities
involved," he said.

Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UNODC, gave new
figures showing Afghanistan's export of drugs to the West was
fuelling the insurgency in Afghanistan. Releasing the final draft of
its 2007 Afghan opium survey, the UNODC chief said poppy growth
increased 17 per cent to 193,000 hectares and the growth in heroin
production leapt a third to 8,200 tonnes.

The report shows that Afghanistan now accounts for 93 per cent of
world opium production and is the biggest narcotics producer since
19th-century China. Helmand produces about half of the national
output of heroin. Farmers gained around $1bn (UKP 500m) from the
total income from the heroin trade, estimated at $4bn, while
district officials took a percentage through a levy on the crops.
The rest was shared among insurgents, warlords and drugs
traffickers, it said.

The wholesale price of a gram of heroin grew with every border
crossed, it noted, rising from $2.50 in Afghanistan itself to $3.50
in Pakistan and Iran, $8 in Turkey, $22 in Germany, $30 in Britain
and $33 in Russia.

"The potential windfall for criminals, insurgents and terrorists is
staggering and runs into the hundreds of millions of dollars," Mr
Costa said.

"Since drugs are funding the insurgency, Nato has a self-interest in
supporting Afghan forces in destroying drugs labs, markets and
convoys. Destroy the drug trade and you cut off the Taliban's main
funding source."

Lord Malloch-Brown, the Foreign Office minister, told peers recently
that the Department for International Development was preparing
plans to provide long-term payments to farmers for stopping poppy
production and growing alternative crops.

However, a British charity, the Senlis Council, is winning support
from MPs for an alternative plan to buy up the annual poppy harvest
for morphine, which is in short supply.

And so Barack Obama tells high school kids in New Hampshire that he
"made some bad decisions" at their age. He "experimented" with pot and
cocaine. This is old news -- but even if it were new news, it would be
ho-hum in today's politics.

Criminal lawyer and friend to the Cannabis Culture, Kirk Tousaw
discusses Canadian cannabis law, his current case with The Vancouver
Island Compassionate Society and gives an update on the "BC3"
extradition proceedings.

If court watchers didn't already have enough reasons to disdain the
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which Texas Monthly famously called
"Texas' Worst Court," now they've ruled that it's okay for police
officers to distribute drugs to informants in order to convince them
to become snitches.

A trial scheme which set up "shooting galleries" in three cities,
enabling heroin users to obtain drugs and inject them under
supervision, has dramatically cut crime rates and stopped addicts
buying their supplies on the streets.

Looking for materials to distribute in your community to help educate
others about the need for marijuana policy reform? Download printer-
friendly PDFs of some of MPP's most popular brochures and other
materials here:

Regarding the Oct. 27 article, "Former Gull Lake teachers sentenced
for growing pot," I don't know any more of the facts than what I
read and I haven't heard any of the local gossip since my youngest
child graduated from Gull Lake High School in 2002, but I was deeply
saddened to hear about the legal troubles facing Brett and Keri
Johnson.

Both of my children were students of Mr. Johnson's. My oldest child
had Mr. Johnson when he was a student teacher at Gull Lake, and my
youngest child had Mr. Johnson as an English teacher for several
classes. They both liked him very much. I thought he was an
excellent teacher, also.

I think the penalties the Johnsons face, including possibly losing
their home and their teaching licenses, already having lost their
jobs at Gull Lake, are far too severe for what they have done.

I don't use marijuana or alcohol, but I cannot condemn those ADULTS
who do use them in moderation.

The Johnsons were not harming anyone else by their actions. They are
not accused of selling marijuana, pushing it to their students,
teaching classes while impaired, giving it to their own children or
making their own children suffer the effects of secondhand marijuana
smoke. The punishment does not fit the crime in this case.

People who choose to drink alcohol and drive and injure and/or kill
others face less punishment. I think what has happened to the
Johnsons is tragic, and I think they deserve support at this
difficult time.

The statistics are staggering. In 2006, marijuana arrests reached a
record 829,627, with one occurring every 38 seconds. Of these, 89%
involved mere possession, not sale or 'manufacture'. (1) The Bureau
of Justice Statistics reported in 2004 that state and federal
prisons held 41,507 individuals on marijuana-related offenses. (2)

So, when Irv Rosenfeld of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, lit a joint at a
press conference this past Tuesday, November 20, the fact that he
wasn't arrested should be newsworthy by itself. But the absence of
handcuffs, Miranda warnings, plea agreements, and parole officers
are what make Irv Rosenfeld a prominent public figure and what
formed the basis for this groundbreaking press conference. That day,
he celebrated his 25th anniversary as the second individual to
participate in FDA's now defunct Compassionate IND program. He
marked this 'Silver Anniversary' by pulling another pre-rolled joint
out of a round, silver tin containing 300 such cigarettes that he
continues to receive each month from the federal government.

To me, Irv would have been just another reform advocate had it not
been for a video of him taken on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court
after the U.S. vs. Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative hearing. In
that video, he uttered four magic words, "Multiple Congenital
Cartilogenous Exostosis." I played it over and over.

That snowy February evening, I had returned from the Alzheimer's
care unit where my father lay dying. Until that video, my dad was
only one of three people whom I had ever known to have 'Multiple
Exostosis.' My son and I were the other two. In a matter of days, I
would lose one of those people, only to find another. It had always
been comforting to be close to someone who understood this condition
so well.

Multiple Exostosis is a rather rare disorder, occurring in one of
every 50,000 people, for an estimated 5,000 cases nationwide. (3) It
is characterized by numerous lesions called tumors, which occur at
the end of long bones and can result in a deformity of the bone,
pain, spasticity, and even cancer.

Even though we share an uncommon condition, it's hard to suggest
that Irv's life and my life followed parallel paths. Although we're
almost the same age, Irv's condition occurred spontaneously, while
mine manifested genetically. Irv learned he had it after a childhood
baseball injury; I knew from birth. We both grew up in middle class
homes, but his condition was treated in a prestigious New England
medical center; I went to a community hospital. By age 17, we both
had relearned walking as a result of multiple surgeries. Irv
underwent four procedures, three on his left leg and one on his
right wrist; I had tumors removed from both of my knees.

We both entered college in the early 1970s, and because it was,
well, the 1970s, experimentation with marijuana was a 'required
course.' From cannabis, Irv regained the ability to sit for more
than 10 minutes. I was introduced to cannabis by my boyfriend and
have enjoyed a 35-year love affair with both ever since.

During the early 1980s, Irv was accepted into the FDA's
Compassionate IND program, which provided cannabis to patients who
could complete a complex application process. I tracked this program
through that decade as a market analyst for a pharmaceutical
company. In the early 1990s, the program closed to all but current
patients at about the same time a corporate merger eliminated my
job.

Both Irv and I have gone on to successful careers, which defy the
stereotypes that often accompany marijuana. As a Ft. Lauderdale
stockbroker, Irv handles financial transactions each day in the
millions of dollars. He is also a skilled disabled sailor and avid
softball player. A graphic designer by trade, I earned my APR (5)
certification in 2000 and, shortly thereafter, joined the staff of
DrugSense/MAP and co-founded the Ohio Patient Network.

Fast-forward to 2007 finds us both well-known medical marijuana
activists who share the same rare bone disorder. This commonality is
where our unparallel paths end.

When medical marijuana laws slice and dice qualifiers, the condition
becomes a pivotal point. Have the more common cancer, glaucoma, or
Multiple Sclerosis, and you're in. Have a rare disorder like
Multiple Congenital Cartilogenous Exostosis and you're out ...
unless you have been grandfathered into the Compassionate IND
program.

This program accords Irv the special privilege of lighting a joint
at a press conference without fear of arrest or prosecution. He will
not lose any driving privileges or professional licenses. There will
be no handcuffs, Miranda warnings, plea agreements, and parole
officers. Unlike me, if I were to do the same, he will never become
a statistic.

And that's the poignant irony. The Compassionate IND program showed
what was possible for those with both common and rare medical
conditions. It was based on cannabis' therapeutic value, a
physician's care, a prescription, and a distribution model. Under
the Compassionate IND, participants - even 25 years later - cannot
be arrested, prosecuted, or hassled in any way for their marijuana
use.

Irv is a remarkable man. He could remain a successful Ft. Lauderdale
stockbroker, who quietly receives his government-issued silver tin
each month. Instead, he chooses to venture into a world where others
risk arrest to testify before the cameras about the difference that
cannabis has made in his life. He is a hero to many.

To me, however, there is a unique connection. I hearken back to that
snowy February evening, remembering the special man that Irv
replaced. Irv holds an esteemed position. He is now only one of
three people whom I have ever known to have Multiple Congenital
Cartilogenous Exostosis.

Happy 25th Anniversary, Irv. May our paths converge to end this war
on medicinal cannabis.

Mary Jane Borden is a writer, artist, and activist in drug policy,
with a focus on medical marijuana. She serves as the Fundraising
Specialist/Business Manager for DrugSense/MAP. This article was
composed with the grateful assistance of Irv Rosenfeld to mark his
25th anniversary as a Compassionate IND patient.

"Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that
happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward
achieving something bigger and better than your current situation."
-- Brian Tracy

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